Winter VS water

Ahh! Tis' the season! Winter, snow, sliding, walks in the wood, fire in the stove that smells great, building snowmen, outstanding Hydro bills... Winter.... Oh, and of course the "best" part: hauling water to the animals!!!

Since we don't have running water in the barn, and since the animals still need to drink (!!!) we need to carry water from the house to them. That means, on a normal cold day, 2 pails of hot water. Enough to melt the ice in the barrels. But on a freezing cold day (like the one we had last year) when it was - 1,000,000° (windchill excluded!!!) 2 wasn't enough. We (and by we, I mean Tim) had to make 3-4 trips. Really painful!

So everything starts in our bathroom where I fill up the pails with hot water...

Then, I take them down the stairs (it feels like a "reverse Kill Bill")

And then Tim takes them outside to the animals (under the supervising warch of Theo).

Tim is doing the hardest part of the job so why am I complaining you'll ask me? Because sometimes Tim isn't there and I need to do it. I have a really bad back so it is painful for me to do that. Walking with the pails on ice and snow kills me!

Finally arriving at the barn and realizing that you dropped almost half of the water when walking because you slipped or fell, and you need to go back home, take your boots off, go up the stairs again, fill the pails again, go down the stairs, AGAIN, put your boots on, go out and hope not to fall or lose water again... Priceless!

But those birds, cow, goat and pigs need to drink too and we love them so, putting aside all of my complaining, we do it as often as we need to.